Featured & New Tasting Notes

When I’m in the mood for thick, creamy, sweet tea, I have been reaching for this blend by Teavana. It satisfies my need for dessert, and today I have had four cups so far (and my tea “cup” is actually an 8 oz. mug!). It’s just so perfumey and yummy!

This is actually the second steeping of this one. Tonight it’s my trying to ground myself again tea. I need it because I’m presently in a foul mood and have been fuming over an issue all weekend. It doesn’t even help that I just submitted my tax deductables and I’m expecting a refund. It helped a little, but I’m still pretty annoyed.

This is one of my first ever green teas. I think it was this one or gunpowder that was my debut, not counting bagged cheap ones. It has really cute twisty spirally leaves and I have a soft spot for it because of this.

These spirally leaves, however, are tightly twisted and they interlock with each other, so that when you take a spoonful of leaves out of the pot you have to pay attention because chances are there are more leaves on your spoon than you were counting on. It’s so easy to use too much leaf here.

After having been accu aqua acqaui getting to know Sencha lately, I was actually struck by a surprising initial thought in this one. It didn’t remind me that much of Sencha as I drank it, but the initial sip where I wasn’t paying too much attention had the same green vegetable-y flavour to it. It was just for a moment and then it turned back into something else. Being in the mood I was in at the time, I can’t actually tell you what it was that changed, but it just did.

Second steep is very sweet. Not really much else in the way of flavour notes, but this is good enough for me. I’ll enjoy the rest of it this evening.

But yeah, I’m still pretty irritated. My presence might be scarce for a while. I feel the need to hide and hibernate and let the irritation burn out, so I may or may not be around, but I’m still reachable by PM or email. See you around, Steepsterites.

The vanilla flavor is light and very well balanced with the natural tea flavor. Beneath the vanilla, the taste is earthy with currants. The aroma is mild vanilla and oak. The vanilla is dominant in the aftertaste. Mild astringency. Liquor brews up copper colored.

I have so much love for this tea. Even the smell of the dry leaves in the can is enough to send me halfway to a state of evening before-bed bliss, as this has rapidly become one of my favorite teas for winding down at night. It has a fresh, clean, dewdropped taste that I find soothing in the same way I find cucumber soothing, plus a gentle nuttiness and very slight honeysuckle sweetness that keeps it on the cozy, warm, snuggly side of things. Two steeps of this are always a good way to end my night.

So how was the 2nd steep of Jackee?

Well, I steeped it for the same amount of time as the 1st (3 min 45 sec). Let it cool slightly to be able to drink it. Realized it was weak. Steeped 30 sec more. Still weak. Steeped 30 sec more. Better but weak. Steep 1 min more. I taste tea mostly now, not watery. Steep 1 min more. Now somewhere over 6 min steep time on a black. I stop. I drink the mug. Sweet and smokey.

I think I need to do something different next time. Perhaps hotter water on the 2nd steep and a longer initial steep time. I might also turn my 1st steep at 3 min 30 sec. The 1st steep was quite strong. I believe A&D said on their website that Jackee could take 2 steeps. They said that about the Yunnan and it could. I think I just need to fiddle with it.

So, Steepsterians who’ve had Jackee and done a 2nd steep with him, what parameters did you use? How did he come out?

I’m quite surprised at how much I like this tea. Full leaf loose green teas still scare me a bit (the hay aroma), but this one brewed up quite nice. I brewed 1.5 tsp @ 170F for 2.5 minutes and got a beautiful pale greenish yellow liquor. This tea smells like champagne with a hint of spearmint. I was surprised at how well the tea matches the taste of a light bubbly champagne, the mojito minty ness is there, and I love it. I like this much better than a fresh mojito, something about mojitos just weren’t my thing, but this sure is my thing. Will brew more when I have more time to enjoy it and more time to do something other than ramble!

A second cup using a different formula. The directions recommend 2-3 teaspoons and 8 minutes. The first time I went with 3 tsp for 8 minutes. This time, 2 tsp for 5.

Interesting contrast. I prefer the 2 tsp at 5 minutes. It seems to lessen the earthy smell I mentioned before without weakening the flavor. Or perhaps I’m just getting used to that smell…

This one time, in a magical far away place I had one of those incredibly expensive, smooth, beautiful, sweet sencha teas. Then I woke up and remembered that I actually did have this one from Golden Moon.

I brewed it the first time, hot, 3 minutes, no additives. The dull leaves, covered in a light green powder, brew into something gatorade yellow/green with the familiar sencha aroma. For those who never had sencha, it is vegetal, it is green, it is bright and strong green in flavor, the final note, the aftertaste is slightly sweet. This brew is pretty spot-on. Not absolutely perfect, but a good Sencha.

The second infusion, hot, 2.5 minutes, no additives, is slightly brighter, a little more vegatal, and the sweet note starts a little earlier and lasts a little longer.

Overall, another good one by Golden Moon.

Tried this blend today courtesy of Meghann M (Thanks Meghann). When I opened the package vanilla tones hit me and the woodsy smell of rooibos. I pour a teaspoon and see small bits of coconut and there too I identified the rooibos that I thought I had smelled. As I said before I like most black teas and this one does have black tea in the list of ingredients but I don’t taste the black tea (at all) I mostly taste rooibos and vanilla while it’s not a bad combination I would like to be able to pick up on the black tea a little more (but that’s just me). As I have said in some of my previous post me a rooibos can go either way it’s kinda a hit or miss sorta thing (same goes for chai’s) and this one is okay. I’ve been in search of a good chai and while this one is not quite it I can see why others would find it appealing. I would like to try it with milk and MAYBE sugar too but unfortunately I am out of milk right now (Thanks to my teenager who is a bottomless pit). I will try this next time I have milk and post the results. Thanks again Meghann!

Forgot to log this!
A little over a week ago, some of us traveled 3 hours to go to a collegiate chapter conference of VMEA. Needless to say, we left pretty early to get there by 8-9ish. They had a little continental breakfast there, and I saw a few Revolution teas in the basket, and having liked what I’ve had of them so far, I thought I’d try this one. I oversteeped it the first time, but before it had gotten to that point, I was in love. It wasn’t too overpowering in tea or bergamot, with the added bonus of a hint of lavender. Definitely a good balance for me, a fan of mild to medium strength teas. Probably my favorite Earl Grey so far. Will have to compare it next to Twinings again and reevaluate.

I was looking for a black tea, actually searching specifically for the bag with the Irish Breakfast from Adagio in it, when I fell over this one, also sent to me by TeaEqualsBliss. I don’t know if this is actually a relatively common flavour for green teas or if it’s another one of Adagio’s whacky flavours. It’s not one I can recall having seen before anyway.

It smells really nice! Sweet and fruity of rhubarb and also of strawberries. It’s reminding me very much of the strawberry and rhubarb puddings of my early childhood, often served for dessert by my grandmother. I’m finding myself looking forward to this to an extreme degree. Based on the smell alone we are looking at something close to 80 points here!

Cross your fingers that I don’t get disappointed, Steepsterites. I don’t want to get disappointed in general, and I especially don’t want to get disappointed by something that smells like this.

After steeping it smells very rhubarb-y! All the strawberry smell is gone here, but there is something else that smells like it could be almost lemon-y. An extremely sour lemon, mind, but still lemon-y. Hello, oxalic acid! My teeth are already a little bit concerned about the coming acid assault. But all is not perfect here. It has gained a semi-synthetic smelling sweetness too. I think it was the one I identified as strawberry earlier.

It’s surprisingly sweet in flavour. The rhubarb flavour isn’t overwhelming, but clearly recognisable. Underneath that it’s a citrus-y green tea. Somewhat water-y and weak, though. All Adagio say is that the base is a chinese green, but I should like to know which one. I brewed it like I normally do all my greens, but it tastes a bit like I should have used more leaf.

I do wish it had been stronger than this. I’ll still give it around 80-ish points, but if it had been stronger then I would definitely have given it more. And it’s definitely also a flavour that I would be interested in trying from another brand if possible.

I find myself now desperately wanting that pudding that my grandmother used to serve…

My first Pu Erh!! Wee!
First time I tried this I steeped it for probably 20 seconds, I was so nervous about it being too strong. I LOVED it. The red-copper cup is so pretty, and the feel of it is ridiculously silky smooth. I was expecting it to be bitter and smoky but it has this lovely medium bodied, smooth flavour that is strangely delicious! I could not have been more pleasantly surprised.

I did a second steep this morning, intending on seeing what happened after about seven minutes, but then forgot about it and went and had a shower!! Total steep time ended up being something like half an hour, and I was completely resigned to sadly having to throw it out, but a quick sip told me no, that would be silly! It was still delicious!! The cup had changed to a dark coffee colour, but bitterness was nowhere in sight!

I really didn’t expect to like Pu Erh, but after having this tea, I can safely say I love it.

Lena sent me a bag of this in a box with some other stuff and I’m actually glad that she did because I always thought this tea sounded interesting, but I wasn’t brave enough to buy a whole box.

The smell of the dry teabag was kind of…unfortunate. It’s like ginger, licorice, and cayenne pepper all had a huge orgy or something. It was just so many strong scents at once that it was overpowering. Luckily when I added the water it toned down and there was actually a bit of a cocoa scent that creeped in aswell.

I was afraid that the tea would be hideously spicy, but it actually wasn’t bad – certainly not any hotter than a straight gingerroot tea might be. There’s a surprisingly sweet taste at the beginning – probably from the licorice root – and the heat follows behind it, although it’s slow to build up so it almost seems to creep up on you. It’s a very intriguing tea but I’m not sure the various ingredients mesh that well. Glad I got to try it though!

Drank this today and finally brewed it long enough. Definitely a very strong pear flavour, with the ginger staying well in the background, but still noticable. I don’t think I have tried any other pear-flavoured teas so this blend is really nice for its uniqueness alone, but overall I think it’s my least favourite of the 5 I ordered from Remedy Tea Bar. It might be the ginger that keeps me from completely loving it. Still a very good cuppa, though!

It looks a lot and tastes a little like (a sour) Hawaiian Punch. My feeling about this tea is much like my feeling about Raspberry Darjeeling Black by Numi was. Too strong on the hibiscus, and perhaps the pomegranate as well, which makes the tea too tart and masks the other flavors. The taste isn’t altogether unpleasant, but it isn’t what I expected from the name of the tea. I’m not getting the raspberry I did from the Numi, even in the finish, and I’m not sure where the pomegranate is, other than in the tartness (but I should say that though I’ve eaten pomegranate seeds I haven’t had pomegranate juice so if that flavor is in here I wouldn’t be able to identify it as such). Instead it’s a generic tart fruitiness (as opposed to fruit tartiness, heh) that I’m tasting, which does seem as though it could be good iced.

If I concentrate really really really hard, I can pick up a green note in the aroma. But I can’t taste it.

As an aside, my boyfriend told me his company has this in their kitchen, and as he’d been eyeing mine he had some the other day at work. His reaction to it was much more positive than mine, but though he’s been a tea drinker for much longer than I have and pretty much always chooses iced tea to go with his meal when we eat out, he hasn’t been participating in my tasting endeavors and experiencing the really excellent teas I’ve had lately. Also, as it turns out he tells me they have an extra zorijushi which they’re talking about giving away. To which I responded first “how Silicon Valley start up of you” and second “gee, I wish you’d told me that before I sunk the bucks into buying one…”

Calling a tea “wuyi oolong” is a bit redundant. But in this category of tea which has such a wide spectrum, confirming that this tea is a center of the bell curve kind of oolong (much like TeaGschwendner’s Formosa Superior Choice that I reviewed the other day) is not necessarily a bad idea.

This tea lacks, perhaps, some of the three dimensional sparkle of the TG FSC, but do you always want “wet stone and dried apricot”? I don’t either. Sometimes you just want that rich, nutty, comforting cup, and these leaves will deliver every time.

This tea is certified organic, which is a good thing.

It’s not the most exciting description in the world, but this is just a GOOD black tea. It’s simple, but the flavors are distinct and enjoyable, and there’s a subtle sweetness that rounds out the experience nicely. There’s also just a hint of bitterness that grabs at the edges of your tongue, but it doesn’t linger long, and reminds you that the tea is there and doing its thing.

The leaves themselves actually don’t have a strong aroma, though the steeped tea has a simple smokey/woodsy smell that’s pleasant, though very light. As such, the taste is a bit of a surprise, since the aroma would have you believe that this is going to be a very mild tea, but it does pack a little punch.

All in all, a very enjoyable tea that should be on any black tea fan’s list.

Mm hmm. When you open the bag and smell there is the undeniable scent of candied pineapple. I will emphasize that there is not the slightest scent of candy, but of candied fruit. Yum.

Upon cupping the tea the sweetness that once prevailed transformes into a gorgeous blend of floral high notes and layers of tropical nuance.

I drank it hot but this tea yearns to be iced.

A masterful blend.

I’ve had this tea for a while and I have finally gotten around to trying it. I hadn’t tried it before because every time I opened the tin it smelled so grassy. But it brews up into a very nice, light, and floral tea with only mild grassiness in the background. It has a beautiful golden color. I added some agave nectar to it since I like my tea sweet.

Brewing info: rinsed tea leaves in hot water for about 5-10 seconds then brewed with hot water (~190 F) for 3 1/2 minutes.

Update: I did NOT like this on the second brew. Brewed again for 3 1/2 minutes and the cup was very grassy. So, I recommend only one brewing of this if you want to avoid the grass flavor.

I am a huge ‘skeptic’ on flavoured teas, not a purist, but I just tend to stir away from them, especially after some flavored teas didn’t play nice with my taste buds. Some like Black Currant (Enjoying Tea.com), White Peach (Adagio Teas), Mango Black (Zhi Tea; makes a good iced tea though), California Fields (Mighty Leaf Tea,) and some things like that dreaded Earl Grey Bravo (Adagio Teas), and even some overly flowery Jasmines.

So I hear about the “legend of the flavoured teas”: Mariage Brother’s famous Marco Polo Blend. So popular to a fact that when I went to Williams & Sonoma to pick up a tin, they told me they were sold out the very day they restocked. It’s reputation proceeds itself. I consider myself lucky to pick a tin up at Gumps the same day. However, I think I may be overstating this tea.

Now lets dedicate a short some of this on the moment I open this tin; as I was expecting most flavoured teas to have their odour reek from the tin the moment it’s cracked open. Some flavoured teas are so dank, that their scent permeates outside the tin! (White Peach). The the scent of Marco Polo, was tame. It came to my nose with it’s exciting strawberry-maplelike scent, candylike almost, but very sophisticated. I spent a good three minutes just enjoying the aroma this tea tea. The leaves weren’t surprisingly different than other flavoured blacks, a little more fuller of a OP, with contrast of browns, and some lighter blacks. But I still say this is more than decent quality for a flavoured tea.

I brewed this like most blacks: five minutes at boiling, in my 24 ounce white teapot. The cup yielded a medium amber cup, with a mellowed aroma of the tin. The take was surprising to me. Medium-full body, it was mildly fruity and sweet, the flavouring almost bypassed my tongue in a way… to travel to my nose. Either the flavouring of this tea wasn’t as strong as I thought it was, or the heat of the boil just killed all the flavour. Either way, it finished up medium, and somewhat sharp.

This tea strangely finds a place between enjoyable and tolerable for me as I am not a fan of flavoured teas. I tried my second cup with light agave nectar, which leveled the sharp finish; and the third cup with 2% fat milk, which ‘almost’ makes me say this would make a “damn fine cup of tea”. I will make this again but with WHOLE milk or maybe even half and half.

Good luck trying to find a tin of it. It’s a bit more expensive on the web, and some high end pricey stores like Gumps in SF and Williams & Sonoma have limited stock. I consider my score to be high for a flavoured tea. This tea made me accept flavoured teas a little more, which is what I was looking for. It changed my opinion of flavoured tea, and it reminded me of Strawberry Black (Adagio Teas). If you know people who love flavoured teas serve them this, or buy it to entertain your nose. I couldn’t have this everyday. If you are a sceptic on flavoured teas, try this, and it may change your mind. 


You know, I had a hard time evaluating the vanilla teas from GM, and I’m having a hard time evaluating this one, too. On the one hand, I really do like the creamy warmth of actual vanilla. On the other, I am beginning to think that it’s difficult to represent it at a strength sufficient to contend with black tea whilst also avoiding the risk of an aftertaste that isn’t necessarily flattering.

That aside, I’m enjoying my cup. The aroma of the tea itself is heavenly. Harney’s description of the tea, while enchanting, is completely inaccurate for me — I didn’t ever spend any time in the winter baking sugar cookies with my grandmother, and if they’d known any of the three women I called variations of the name ‘granny’, they would probably kill themselves laughing at the very thought — but if I had, then perhaps it would’ve smelled like this. It’s a nice, musky, low vanilla scent, not the super-sweet vanilla of confectionary. Vanilla is one of those flavors that, when most natural, makes me think of…thick-petaled flowers with sweet, oily scents, sitting in pots half-hidden in shadow in a warm, dark room, in which the only lighting comes from a low-burning fireplace. It’s sweet and shadows, but warm shadows.

It isn’t completely overpowering, either. The aroma is stronger than the flavor, but only by a hair. I’m drinking this plain because I want to see what the tea does in my mouth, because of this aforementioned inclination for vanilla to leave an aftertaste…and, sure enough, it does have one — even high-quality vanilla-bean ice cream does, so that is by no means the fault of the tea — though it certainly wouldn’t prevent me from having another cup.

It’s good enough that I think my next go-around I’ll be sipping it with some sugar to see if that decreases the tang in the aftertaste. I expect that a tiny bit of sweetener will elevate this from being merely a warm-fuzzy cup of comforting tea to a real treat that borders on indulgence.

I was just given a shock by running water. Sigh. Today has just been one of those days. I deserve an early tea break.

Takgoti was lovely enough to send this to me so I’m very excited I get to try it because I? Was totally not on the ball and ordered no Series 4. The dry leaf smells lovely – earthy but fresh. The leaves are pretty cute, too – short and brown but with fuzzy gold bits popping through everywhere. I kind of want to coo at them. (Please note, it is only just past noon but it has been a long day.)

The color of the tea matches the dark parts of my desk which the office supply place says is a cherry finish but it’s not really because if it was, part of it wouldn’t have peeled up when I got tape stuck to it. But anyway, the tea matches my desk nicely (though I imagine that it would react differently to tape). Oh and the smell is so nice. Rich and fuzzy and stout and sweet like figs and brown sugar.

Wow this tastes good. Sweet with a little coffee-like edge of sort-of-acidity. Not so much that it isn’t smooth (because it is), but just enough to make it energetic. It’s not quite chewy but definitely closer to chewy than it is to light-bodied thinness. I could see perhaps putting a splash of milk in it to make even richer but it’s sweet enough with the raisin/fig/brown sugar taste that I think adding sugar would be overkill (that’s not to say I still won’t give it a shot though).

This is a good tea for me today. Bracing enough to help me make it through the rest of the day but with an edge of sweetness to show that it is a nice tea and really just doing what is best for me by standing me up, dusting me off and sending me back into the fray. Good kitty.

ETA: 2nd steep @ 5mins. Oooh, smooth. The tiger is calm and purring as he sits beside me. Lovely. Very similar flavor as the first steep but without the not-quite-acidic edge to it.
3.1g/8oz

I’m trying this tea again today…

Still has that odd taste that I’m not quite sure how to describe. My friend described it as “fishy”, so take that as you will. Essentially, it is a slight bit easier to drink than last time, but I still had to lower the rating a bit because I think I gave it too generous of a rating last time. At least it’s slightly more drinkable this time around, but I don’t get any enjoyment out of it like I do with my Samovar teas…

Is Samovar really that untouchable?

Brewed this again this morning and tried it with a splash of coffeemate (drat do I need to get milk). I really do believe this is going to be a au natural tea for me (no cream no sugar) as it was HORRID with the coffeemate. Drowned out all of the bergamot goodness and creme taste. First cup I’ve poured out, but enjoyed the second cup of the pot very much as a refreshing uplifting morning tea. This is my new non spice favorite tea. I don’t know why I stayed away from Earl Grey’s for so long.